“Other than you and the four staff members, it was just Linda and Jessica Garrett?” Mac asked. “Is that enough people to handle all these guests?”
“Jessica didn’t expect it to be very long. We didn’t anticipate the storm to be as bad as it’s been.” He gave a small shrug. “Plus there was Clarissa. She would have pitched in if we needed her. She’s only been here for about six months but she knows everyone’s job. She spent time with each department when she started so she could get a feel for how things worked.”
“Sounds like she was really dedicated to her job,” Mac said.
Wally snorted and then slapped his hand over his mouth. He stared at us with wide eyes.
Mac tilted his head and gave Wally an “out with it” look.
“Shortly after she finished ‘learning’ the departments”—he made quotation marks in the air and narrowed his eyes—“she cut staff by twenty-five percent. She said everyone could be much more efficient and we didn’t need so many people working here.”
Mac glanced at me and raised an eyebrow.
“That can’t have gone over very well with the staff,” I said.
Wally shook his head, and crossed his arms. “Mrs. Garrett was against it. She feels like the hotel is part of the community and didn’t want to let those people go. She knew that they all had families to support.” Wally’s voice got louder as he spoke. “But Ms. Carlisle inundated her with charts and numbers and told her the place couldn’t support such a large staff. She wanted to expand the spa services and thought the other departments needed to be more efficient.”
Wally glanced from Mac to me.
He lowered his voice. “I probably shouldn’t talk about this anymore. Mrs. Garrett knows a lot more about it. She can tell you what happened.”
“Anything you’ve seen or heard could help us, Wally,” I said.
“That’s it.” He held his hand up to ward off any more questions. “I don’t know anything else.” He sat back and glanced at his watch. “I should go see whether Kirk has made any progress on the generator.”
He hopped up and made a hasty exit.
“That was strange,” I said. “It’s like he suddenly realized what he was saying. It doesn’t sound like things were running smoothly here between Clarissa and her family.”
Mac shook his head. “I think we need to talk to the Garretts as well as the knitters.”
We found Jessica in the kitchen talking to René. The room was bright and clean with stainless steel appliances and white countertops. It looked more like a high-end New York kitchen than a Victorian castle kitchen. Their voices were low and urgent and stopped abruptly when we approached.
Jessica’s smile stopped short of her eyes. “I hear you’re looking for me.”
Mac glanced at me as if to say, “Wally was quick.”
“We’re talking to everyone who might have seen what happened last evening,” he said.
She nodded and gestured toward the dining room, which was empty.
I led them to a table away from the windows and we sat.
“You don’t think one of the knitters could have harmed her, do you?” Jessica said.
Mac took a deep breath. “Someone murdered your cousin, Ms. Garrett. If it wasn’t one of the knitters, it was one of your staff. Given the blizzard last night, we can hardly assume this was the work of a stranger.”
Jessica rubbed her arms and shivered. “I just . . . I can’t imagine any of the knitters doing this.”
“But you can imagine your staff doing this?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I didn’t mean that. It’s just that the cable needle kind of points to a knitter, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe,” I said. “There must be a bunch of those needles lying around and the workshop room wasn’t locked.”
Jessica shook her head. “The needle was Isabel’s.”
“How could you tell?” Mac said.
“It’s one of the needles she had made for the class,” Jessica said. “It’s designed by a very exclusive knitting needle company. They use airplane-grade metals and hand-tool their needles. Isabel has raved about them on her review blog enough that they send her samples all the time.”
“You could tell just by looking at it that it’s one of hers?” I asked. I remembered her hesitation when I asked her about it the night before.
Jessica nodded. “She had them make purple ones and most people here have plastic cable needles that aren’t curved like that.”
“You said she had them made for the workshop?” Mac said. “So, does everyone have one?”
“No, she hasn’t passed them out yet. In fact, I don’t think anyone knows that there is more than one. She used it to demonstrate during class yesterday and she planned to give them all their own as part of the goody bag at the end of the workshop.”
“Why didn’t you say anything last night when you saw the needle?” I asked. “Do you think Isabel could have killed your cousin?”
Jessica was already shaking her head. “No, I don’t think that. That’s what I’m trying to say. But I was worried that it would look bad for Isabel.”